What kind of data can you track with Google Analytics?

1. Dimensions: These are characteristics of the users, their sessions, and their actions.

维度，访客、会话、交互行为的特征：

Some examples for dimensions are:

Geographic location（哪里人，兴趣、爱好，收入，种族） for users

Traffic source（流量来源，来自sns，email，自然搜索，cpc等） for sessions

Name of the page（浏览页面） viewed by user for actions

2. Metrics: These are quantitative data of users, sessions and actions. They are actual numbers.

指标：访客、会话、交互行为的量化数据，都是数字

Some examples of metrics are:

部分指标例子

Total number of visitors （访客数量，不是人数，这是受众指标）as an Audience metric.

Average number of pages/visits （PV，人均访问页面数量，行为指标）as a Behavior metric.

A purchase（订单数量） as a Conversion metric.

In general, you’ll be able to collect the following data from Google Analytics:

以上是例子，通过GA你可以收集如下数据，人过留声 雁过留痕

Session or visit – user interactions with your site: stops when user has been inactive for 30 minutes. You can extend that for more than 30 minutes for video-streaming sites.

Page view – counts every time a page is viewed on your site.

Event – actions carried out by the user such as watching a video, or email sign up. This requires additional customization to be able to track it. Once a user does not generate an event in more than 30 minutes, this session will expire.

Visit duration – the time from the first page visit to the last page visit

Pages/session – the number of pages visited by a single person during the particular session

New vs. returning visitors – the percentage of new and returning visitors

Bounce rate – the percentage of users who visit only one page of your website and leave without browsing further. (This means that you’re probably setting up wrong expectations for users on the site.)

Exit rate – the percentage of users who leave at a particular page of your site.

Conversion rate – the percentage of users who purchase or complete an action on your site.

Transactions – the total number of complete purchases on your site

When you open Google Analytics, you’ll see that every report contains dimensions and metrics. They are most commonly reported in a table, with the first column representing the dimensions, and the rest of the table displaying the corresponding metrics:

Google Analytics allows you to tracks tons of metrics. Sadly, most of them don’t really matter for your business’ growth. We can separate the data we collect into two main categories:

你可以跟踪一大堆指标，但是大部分跟你的业务增长没关系，我们把收集到的数据分为两大类

Vanity metrics（好看不实用，但是很有满足感） – These look good on paper, but don’t really show whether your business is doing better or worse. These are things like page views, bounce rate, time on site.

数据很好看，但是无法直接展示你的收入好不好，比如page views, bounce rate, time on site.

Actionable data （与业务相关）– These are the actual metrics that matter for your business. They show you that you’re doing an amazing job and that you need to go in the same direction. Some great examples would be: active users; engagement; conversion rates; customer acquisition cost; and ultimately, revenues and profits.

If you track only the vanity metrics, then you’ll get a false sense of success. Just because your eCommerce website has loads of traffic, this doesn’t mean you have a great business. At the end of the day, it doesn’t mean a thing if you have a low conversion rate, but only a few thousand of them become customers.

How to use Google Analytics to track and improve your online performance?

Before you start implementing Google Analytics on your site, you should take the time to create a measurement plan. By doing so you’ll know which metrics to track; why; what they mean; and how to use them to improve your business results.

For example: The main business objective for EVO is to help people enjoy winter sports using their ski and snowboarding equipment, and thereby cultivate their love for extreme sports. They also want to increase their online sales in the upcoming months.

EVO的主要业务目标是帮助人们使用滑雪和滑雪板设备享受冬季运动，从而培养他们对极限运动的热爱。 他们还希望在未来几个月内增加在线销售额。

Step #2: Identify strategies and tactics to achieve these goals. Your plan must include both strategies (high-level plans) and tactics (specific methods) in order to guarantee success.

为实现这个目标的指导思想和工作方法 胸怀大志是不够的，还需要腹有良谋

For example: The main strategy for EVO to increase sales is to sell more ski and snowboarding equipment. They plan to do this by implementing tactics for:

例如：EVO增加销量的主要策略是销售更多滑雪和单板滑雪设备（可能他们还有很多其他产品）。 他们计划通过实施以下策略来实现这一目标：

increasing organic traffic with SEO.

通过seo增加自然流量

increasing conversion rates with A/B testing.

用AB测试增加转化率

upselling additional products at the moment of purchase.

在客户购买付款之前的那个页面增加关联产品

Step #3: Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – These are the metrics that you’re going to use on a daily business to understand how your business is performing.

Step #5: Choose targets for each KPI – This will help you understand whether your business is doing well or poorly over time. Without this information you will never know whether you’ve achieved your goals.

EVO might set the following targets:

1M unique visitors from organic search

1.5% conversion rate

$2,500 average order size

为KPI设置阶段性目标，这个阶段工作开展的效果还不好， 这样你才可以评估离成功的路还有多远

How to setup Google Analytics eCommerce tracking

用GA设置电子商务的跟踪

To start collecting data with Google Analytics, follow these five steps:

Step #2: Log in to your Google Analytics account and click on “Create new account”.

如无账号，就 “Create new account”.

Fill out the data fields, and on the next page you’ll get the tracking ID code.

tracking ID，每个网站不一样，唯一性，还有tracking ID code

Step #3: Set up tracking ID code on your site by copying and pasting your tracking ID on every single page of your eCommerce site that you’d like to track. The best location for the code is at the end of head tag.

在模板的<head/>之前粘贴跟踪代码

Some eCommerce platforms like Shopify allow much easier integration: just copy and paste the JavaScript code inside the plugin/admin panel.

Shopify更简单，进入后台 Settings > General

Then paste the code into the Google Analytics field.

跟踪代码放在这里

Step 4: Turn on the ecommerce tracking feature. For eCommerce sites you’ll need to perform one additional step to be able to track things like sales and average order size. To turn on this feature do the following:

Understanding basic reports

All of the data tracked by Google Analytics is presented in form of reports. There are five standard ones that don’t require any customization:

所有的数据，GA以表单的形式展现，有5个标准的report不允许任何修改。

Real-time – This shows real-time statistics about the people currently on your site – things like who is on your site at that very moment; where they came from; their geographic location; and what pages they’re browsing.

当前有几个人，来自哪个国家，从facebook来还是自然搜索，用电脑还是移动终端，在浏览哪个页面

Real-time data is rarely useful; however, it can help you to better understand:

查看Real-time ，你可以了解

whether the data you’re tracking over time is correct

你设置的跟踪目标，跟踪的link是否正确

the immediate results from your marketing campaigns.

你设置的营销版块的即时效果，多少人从Google shopping进来，多少人从SNS进来

the results from A/B testing and multi-funnel testing within minutes.

实时查看AB测试和漏斗的成效

the pages users are viewing at the moment, so that you can publish, adjust and modify your content in real time.

which are the top-selling products on your site, so that you can push them more.

how much time people need to decide before buying your products, so that you can improve your conversion campaigns.

How to segment your data?

With segmentation you‘re filtering data in real time with the aim of isolating and comparing metrics so that you can see which segments are underperforming. It’s extremely useful for understanding your business performance, and filtering actionable take-aways.

When you go to Audience, you’ll see that all of the Sessions segment already applies to the Audience section, which includes all sessions within the selected date range.

当您转到Audience时，您会看到所有会话段都已应用于“受众群体”部分，其中包括所选日期范围内的所有会话。

Click the arrow to open up the segment builder. You’ll see a list of commonly used segments. You can compare up to four segments at any one time by clicking the segment label or dragging it into the empty fields at the top of the report. You can also remove them by clicking “x” on the already selected ones.

When you’ve selected your segment, click on “Apply” at the bottom. You’ll see each of your segments represented by a time graph and a data table. Once applied, segments will show in your other reports as well.

选择segment后，点击底部的“Apply”。 您将看到每个segment由时间图和数据表表示。segment也会显示在您的其他报告中。

To create a custom segment, simply click “Create new segment”. Start by giving the segment a name, then choose your criteria from the categories on the left to filter your data.

要创建自定义细分，只需点击“Create new segment”即可。首先为细分提供一个名称，然后从左侧的类别中选择您的条件来过滤您的数据。

For example: you can choose language from the demographics category and filter it for only those who speak Spanish. You can even create customization based on sequences of custom interaction.

eCommerce reporting – It tracks important sales activities and performance for your online store, such as:

电子商务报告 – 它跟踪您的在线商店的销售和整体表现，例如：

transactions.

revenue.

conversion rates.

unique purchases.

quantity.

product purchased.

number of times people visited before purchasing.

Etc.

The eCommerce reporting is very similar to the goal reporting, with one small difference – goal conversions are tracked as one per visit. Therefore, if one user buys several products per visit, it will be counted as one conversion.

eCommerce conversions are tracked multiple times per visit. If a person buys three products per visit, it will be counted as three conversions.

Conclusion

To take your skills to the next level, we suggest you go to Google Analytics Academy and take the advanced course Ecommerce Analytics: From Data to Decisions. By doing so you will learn advanced techniques for tracking and analyzing data that will allow you to better improve your marketing efforts and sales and take them to the next level.